After earlier reports of only one fatality, police reported there were multiple fatalities after shootings at Virginia Tech University in what is being called the worst act of gun violence in American history, according to government sources cited by the Associated Press..

Blacksburg police had earlier confirmed 22 fatalities resulting from the campus shootings today according to the Virginia Tech student newspaper, the Collegiate Times. Fox News reported that that at least 32 were killed, according to a federal law enforcement source. But the Associated Press is now reporting that the gunman killed 30, and that he died as well, bringing the death toll to 31.

CNN's local affiliate, WDBJ, is reporting the gunman was among those reported dead. The shooter was earlier reported in custody.

University President Charles W. Steger called the attack "a tragedy of monumental proportions."

Students at Virginia Tech, in Blacksburg, Virginia, were told not to leave their dormitories via e-mail this morning after reports of shootings on campus. The university is beginning a phased evacuation.

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"Behind every great fortune lies a great crime."Honore de Balzac

"Democrats work to help people who need help. That other party, they work for people who don't need help. That's all there is to it."~Harry S. Truman

BLACKSBURG, Va., April 16 — Thirty-two people were killed, along with a gunman, and at least 15 injured in two shooting attacks at Virginia Polytechnic Institute on Monday during three hours of horror and chaos on this sprawling campus.

The police and witnesses said some victims were executed with handguns while other students were hurt jumping from upper-story windows of the classroom building where most of the killings occurred. After the second round of killings, the gunman killed himself, the police said.

It was the deadliest shooting rampage in American history and came nearly eight years to the day after 13 people died at Columbine High School in Colorado at the hands of two disaffected students who then killed themselves.

There will be plenty of "rapid responses" to the gun rampage on the Virginia Tech campus, which has claimed the lives of as many as 31 students -- making it the deadliest school shotting incident in the history of the United States.

Do not doubt that the National Rifle Association is preparing its "this-had-nothing-to-do-with-guns" press release. The group has no compunctions about living up to its reputation for being beyond shame -- or education -- when it comes to peddling its spin on days when it would be better to simply remain silent. But the NRA will not be alone in responding in a self-serving manner. Many groups on all sides of issues related to guns and violence in America will be busy making their points, just as many in the media will look for one dimensional "explanations" for what the university's president, Charles Steger, has correctly described as "a tragedy... of monumental proportions."